If You Can Handle The Heat, Chocolate Hot Sauce Is For You
When I arrived to the hot sauce company Homesweet Homegrown's chili pepper farm in Kutztown, PA, a few weeks ago, I was almost certain I had a fiery future ahead of me. Not gonna lie, I was a little stressed. I love spicy food, don't get me wrong, but I had heard rumors of what the carolina reaper and ghost peppers do to people. This was a level of extreme heat I have not experienced.
BUY NOW: Chocolate Ghost Pepper Sauce, $11, amazon.com.
I was visiting Robyn Jasko, the founder of Homesweet Homegrown, to make their popular Chocolate Ghost Pepper Sauce. First of all, a chocolate hot sauce sounded bizarrely delightful, and second, I wanted to learn how to make hot sauce since I find a way to pour it over most foods I eat: pizza, eggs, avocado toast ... IMO, there's not much hot sauce can't make better.
Upon arriving to the farm, I tasted a few of the 50 different chili pepper varieties Jasko grows with her husband, Paul: ají dulce, jalapeño, lemon drop. Lemon drop was surprisingly hot, but still nothing compared to the ghost and carolina reaper. One bite of each of those and I nearly lost it (truly, I was dry heaving with my head between my legs).
Amazingly, when blended up in a hot sauce with a more mild pepper and cocoa powder - this is where the chocolate comes in; Jasko adds it for depth - the ghost pepper takes on a new life: bold, but not in the I-want-you-dead! kinda way, and super complex. This is the hot sauce you want to put on everything... IF you can handle the heat.
WATCH MORE
Follow Delish on Instagram.
Download the Delish app.
You Might Also Like
